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24 What do you
want? Light or darkness, knowledge or ignorance are yours, but not both. Opposites must be brought together and not kept apart. For their separation is only in your mind, and they are reconciled by union, as
you are. In union, everything that is not real
must disappear, for truth
is union.
"Perception Without Deceit"
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Workbook for Students
Lesson 158
Today I learn to give as I receive.
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1 What has been given you? The knowledge that you are a mind, in Mind and purely mind, sinless forever, wholly unafraid because you were created out of Love. Nor have you left your Source, remaining as you were created. This was given you as knowledge which you cannot lose. It was given as well to every living thing, for by that knowledge only does it live.
2 You have received all this. No one who walks the world but has received it. It is not this knowledge which you give, for that is what creation gave. All this cannot be learned. What, then, are you to learn to give today? Our lesson yesterday evoked a theme found early in the text. Experience cannot be shared directly in the way that vision can. The revelation that the Father and the Son are one will come in time to every mind. Yet is that time determined by the mind itself, not taught.
3 The time is set already. It appears to be quite arbitrary. Yet there is no step along the road that anyone takes but by chance. It has already been taken by him, although he has not yet embarked on it. For time but seems to go in one direction. We but undertake a journey that is over. Yet it seems to have a future still unknown to us.
4 Time is a trick-a sleight of hand, a vast illusion in which figures come and go as if by magic. Yet there is a plan behind appearances which does not change. The script is written. When experience will come to end your doubting has been set. For we but see the journey from the point at which it ended, looking back on it, imagining we make it once again; reviewing mentally what has gone by.
5 A teacher does not give experience because he did not learn it. It revealed itself to him at its appointed time. But vision is his gift. This he can give directly, for Christ's knowledge is not lost because He has a vision He can give to anyone who asks. The Father's Will and His are joined in knowledge. Yet there is a vision which the Holy Spirit sees because the mind of Christ beholds it too.
6Here is the joining of the world of doubt and shadows made with the intangible. Here is a quiet place within the world made holy by forgiveness and by love. Here are all contradictions reconciled, for here the journey ends. Experience, unlearned, untaught, unseen, is merely there. This is beyond our goal, for it transcends what needs to be accomplished. Our concern is with Christ's vision. This we can attain.
7 Christ's vision has one law. It does not look upon a body and mistake it for the Son whom God created. It beholds a light beyond the body, an idea beyond what can be touched, a purity undimmed by errors, pitiful mistakes, and fearful thoughts of guilt from dreams of sin. It sees no separation. And it looks on everyone, on every circumstance, all happenings, and all events without the slightest fading of the light it sees.
8 This can be taught and must be taught by all who would achieve it. It requires but the recognition that the world cannot give anything that faintly can compare with this in value; nor set up a goal which does not merely disappear when this has been perceived. And this you give today-see no one as a body. Greet him as the Son of God he is, acknowledging that he is one with you in holiness.
9 Thus are his sins forgiven him, for Christ has vision which has power to overlook them all. In His forgiveness, they are gone. Unseen by One, they merely disappear because a vision of the holiness which lies beyond them comes to take their place. It matters not what form they took nor how enormous they appeared to be nor who seemed to be hurt by them. They are no more, and all effects they seemed to have are gone with them, undone and never to be done.
10Thus do you learn to give as you receive. And thus Christ's vision looks on you as well. This lesson is not difficult to learn if you remember in your brother you but see yourself. If he be lost in sin so must you be; if you see light in him your sins have been forgiven by yourself. Each brother whom you meet today provides another chance to let Christ's vision shine on you and offer you the peace of God.
11 It matters not when revelation comes, for that is not of time. Yet time has still one gift to give in which true knowledge is reflected in a way so accurate its image shares its unseen holiness; its likeness shines with its immortal love. We practice seeing with the eyes of Christ today. And by the holy gifts we give, Christ's vision looks upon ourselves as well.
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Lesson ARCHIVE
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Course in Miracles
Original Edition
Text
Chapter 14
Bringing Illusions to Truth
IV. Perception Without Deceit
par 24-37
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24 What do you
want? Light or darkness, knowledge or ignorance are yours, but not both. Opposites must be brought together and not kept apart. For their separation is only in your mind, and they are reconciled by union, as
you are. In union, everything that is not real
must disappear, for truth
is union. As darkness disappears in light, so ignorance fades away when knowledge dawns. Perception is the medium by which ignorance is brought to knowledge. Yet the perception must be without deceit, for otherwise it becomes the messenger of ignorance rather than a helper in the search for truth.
25 The search for truth is but the honest searching out of everything that interferes with truth. Truth
is. It can be neither lost nor sought nor found. It is there, wherever
you are, being
within you. Yet it
can be recognized or unrecognized, real or false to
you. If you hide it, it becomes unreal to you
because you hid it and surrounded it with fear. Under each cornerstone of fear on which you have erected your insane system of belief, the truth lies hidden. Yet you cannot know this, for by hiding truth in fear, you see no reason to believe the
more you look at fear, the
less you see it, and the clearer what it
conceals becomes.
26 It is not possible to convince the unknowing that they know. From their point of view, it is not true. Yet it
is true because
God knows it. These are clearly opposite viewpoints of what the "unknowing" are. To God, unknowing is impossible. It is therefore not a point of view at all but merely a belief in something that does not exist. It is only this belief that the unknowing have, and by it they are wrong about themselves. They have
defined themselves as they were not created. Their creation was not a point of view, but rather a certainty. Uncertainty brought to certainty does not retain
any conviction of reality.
27 You must have noticed that the emphasis has been on bringing what is undesirable
to the desirable; what you do
not want to what you
do. You will realize that salvation must come to you this way if you consider what dissociation is. Dissociation is a distorted process of thinking whereby two systems of belief which cannot coexist are both
maintained. It has
been recognized that if they were brought
together their joint acceptance would become impossible. But if one is kept in darkness from the other, their
separation seems to keep them both alive and equal in their reality. Their joining thus becomes the source of fear, for if they meet, acceptance
must be withdrawn from one of them.
28 You
cannot have them both, for each denies the other. Apart, this fact is lost from sight, for each in a
separate place can be endowed with firm belief. Bring them
together, and the fact of their complete incompatibility is instantly apparent. One will go
because the other is seen in the same place. Light cannot enter darkness when a mind believes in darkness and will not
let it go. Truth does not struggle against ignorance, and love does not attack fear. What needs no protection does not defend itself. Defense is of
your making. God knows it not. The Holy Spirit uses defenses on
behalf of truth only because you made them
against it. His perception of them, according to His purpose, merely changes them into a call
for what you have
attacked with them.
29 Defenses, like everything you made, must be gently turned to your own good, translated by the Holy Spirit from means of self-destruction to means of preservation and release. His task is mighty, but the power of God is with Him. Therefore, to Him it is so easy that it was accomplished the instant it was given Him for you. Do not delay yourselves in your return to peace by wondering how He can fulfill what God has given Him to do. Leave that to Him Who knows. You are not asked to do mighty tasks yourself. You are merely asked to do the little He suggests you do, trusting Him only to the small extent of believing that if He asks it, you
can do it. You will
see how easily all that He asks can be accomplished.
30 The Holy Spirit asks of you but this—bring to Him every secret you have locked away from Him. Open every door to Him and bid Him enter the darkness and lighten it away. At your request He enters gladly. He brings the light to darkness if you make the darkness
open to Him. But what you hide He cannot look upon. For He sees for
you, and unless you look
with Him, He cannot see. The vision of Christ is not for Him alone but for Him with
you. Bring, therefore, all your dark and secret thoughts to Him and look upon them
with Him. He holds the light, and you the darkness. They
cannot coexist when both of you together look on them. His judgment
must prevail, and He will
give it to you as you join your perception to His. Joining with Him in seeing is the way in which you learn to share with Him the interpretation of perception that leads to knowledge.
31 You cannot see alone. Sharing perception with Him Whom God has given you teaches you how to
recognize what you see. It is the recognition that nothing you see means
anything alone. Seeing with Him will show you that all meaning, including
yours, comes not from double vision but from the gentle fusing of everything into
one meaning,
one emotion, and
one purpose. God has one purpose which He shares with you. The single vision which the Holy Spirit offers you will bring this oneness to your mind with clarity and brightness so intense you could not wish for all the world not to accept what God would have you have. Behold your will, accepting it as His, with all His love as yours. All honor to you through Him, and through Him unto God.
32 In the darkness you have obscured the glory God gave you and the power He bestowed upon His guiltless Son. All this lies hidden in every darkened place shrouded in guilt and in the dark denial of innocence. Behind the dark doors which you have closed lies nothing, because nothing
can obscure the gift of God. It is the closing of the doors that interferes with recognition of the power of God that shines in you. Banish not power from your mind, but let all that would hide your glory be brought to the judgment of the Holy Spirit and there undone. Whom He would save for glory
is saved for it. He has promised the Father that through Him you would be released from littleness to glory. To what He promised God He is wholly faithful, for He shared with God the promise that was given Him to share with
you.
33 He shares it still, for
you. Everything that promises otherwise, great or small, however much or little valued, He will replace with the
one promise given unto Him to lay upon the altar to your Father and His Son. No altar stands to God
without His Son. And nothing brought there that is not equally worthy of both but will be replaced by gifts wholly acceptable to Father
and to Son. Can you offer guilt to God? You cannot, then, offer it to His Son. For they are not apart, and gifts to one
are offered to the other.
34 You know not God because you know not this. And yet you
do know God and
also this. All this is safe within you, where the Holy Spirit shines. He shines not in division, but in the meeting place where God, united with His Son, speaks to His Son through Him. Communication between what cannot be divided
cannot cease. The holy meeting place of the unseparated Father and His Son lies in the Holy Spirit and in
you. All interference in the communication that God Himself wills with His Son is quite impossible here. Unbroken and uninterrupted love flows constantly between the Father and the Son, as
both would have it be. And so it
is.
35 Let your minds wander not through darkened corridors, away from light's center. You may choose to lead yourselves astray, but you can only be brought
together by the Guide appointed for you. He will surely lead you to where God and His Son await your recognition. They are joined in giving you the gift of oneness, before which
all separation vanishes. Unite with what you
are. You
cannot join with anything except reality. God's glory and His Son's belong to you in truth. They
have no opposite, and nothing else
can you bestow upon yourselves.
36 There is no substitute for truth. And truth will make this plain to you as you are brought into the place where you must
meet with truth. And there you must be led, through gentle understanding which can lead you nowhere else. Where God is, there are
you. Such
is the truth. Nothing can change the knowledge given you by God into unknowingness. Everything God created knows its Creator. For this is how creation is accomplished by the Creator and by His creations. In the holy meeting place are joined the Father and His creations, and the creations of His Son with them together. There is one link which joins them all together, holding them in the oneness out of which creation happens.
37 The link with which the Father joins Himself to those He gives the power to create like Him can
never be dissolved. Heaven itself is union with all of creation and with its One Creator. And Heaven remains the Will of God for you. Lay no gifts other than this upon your altars, for nothing can coexist beside it. Here your meager offerings are brought together with the gift of God, and only what is worthy of the Father will be accepted by the Son, for whom it was intended. To whom God gives Himself, He
is given. Your little gifts will vanish on the altar where He has placed His Own.
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Sarah's Reflections
Lesson 158
Today I learn to give as I receive.
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I have spent a big part of my life trying to get approval, affirmation, recognition, and love from others. I wanted to be seen as helpful, smart, loveable, creative, supportive, and a million other things. It was not until this Course came into my life that I began to see that how I see myself is not dependent on how everyone should see me, but how I choose to see them! Everyone is just a reflection of my mind! The only way I can know the Self I am, as innocent and whole, is to see my brothers in the same way. It is to see with Christ's vision and not with my own interpretation (judgment) of who my brother is. This learning is dependent on taking responsibility for my projections onto others and seeing that they all come from my own mind. In other words, the judgments I have about myself are what I see in others. They are shadows of what I don't want to acknowledge in myself.
The people in our lives that we tend to attract, as well as those we find particularly annoying, are those who reflect this shadow side of ourselves that we are unwilling to acknowledge. We would rather blame them and judge them or elevate them, than take responsibility for our projections. Yet healing happens when we take back our projections and bring them to the Holy Spirit, Who will shine them away. Now space is made for the miracle. It is not about striving to get others to see me in the way I want to be seen but to clean up my projections that I put onto others. It is to increasingly recognize that it is all coming from my own unhealed perceptions. Thus, everyone is a mirror in which I see myself.
"This lesson is not difficult to learn, if you remember in your brother you but see yourself."
(W.158.10.3) It is not how you see me but how I see you that reflects the state of my mind.
"If he be lost in sin, so must you be; if you see light in him, your sins have been forgiven by yourself."
(W.158.10.4) Our practice today is about seeing with the eyes of Christ.
"Today I let Christ's vision look upon all things for me and judge them not, but give each one a miracle of love instead."
(W.349) Or, as the prayer in Lesson 295 says,
"Help me to use the eyes of Christ today, and thus allow the Holy Spirit's Love to bless all things which I may look upon, that His forgiving Love may rest on me."
(W.295.2.2) To see with Christ's vision is to see the innocence in our brothers.
I have come to see that while I make healing seem like such a long and hard journey that will last until I will finally achieve consistent peace in my life, it is actually the ego that prefers it this way. The ego is happy to take this journey with us just as long as we don’t make it easy. The ego does not trust anything that is easy; thus, we struggle to find our way to peace when all we have to do is be willing to let go of our way of seeing and turn to Spirit. His Answer is immediately available to us but we don’t always want it. We prefer to stubbornly hold onto our own perspectives. We prefer our own movie so much that we are reluctant to leave it---we just keep rolling the film.
But now we can question this. We can put our perspectives to the deeper investigation as to what is under our difficulties. Why do I feel the way I do? What am I holding onto? What is there for me to see in this situation that I am not seeing? What beliefs do I have that get in the way of my peace? How have I defined myself, using this particular situation to attack myself? Am I willing to be grateful for every experience that helps me to see what I am holding onto that is not the truth? How is my suffering serving me? What do I get to be right about? How do I use it to punish others? Am I willing to give over my self-attacking thoughts to the Holy Spirit by putting it all in His Hands and letting it go?
The Lesson starts with the reminder that we get over and over in this Course. Jesus affirms again and again that our reality is totally sinless, purely spirit, invulnerable, and created out of love. There is nothing we can do, or have done, to change ourselves. This is what the Atonement Principle is about: assuring us that we are still the same as we were created---holy, pure and innocent. Regardless of what terrible things we judge ourselves for, we can't change the truth of who we really are. Yes, we have lost sight of our reality. However, that does not mean we can change the Self we are. Our entire work with the Course is to remember the truth about ourselves that we have kept hidden from awareness. It can only be accomplished when we look at our misperceptions and bring them to the Holy Spirit in the right mind.
We believe our reality is a body and a personality with a story we tell of our lives in the world. None of this is true. We are not these bodies and personalities that we identify as ourselves. Neither are we our past, our mistakes, our "sins," our sadness, our roles, our self-concepts, nor our stories. Nothing I believe I have done in my years on this planet has changed anything about my reality as a Mind, which is, and always has been, forever sinless. Christ's vision looks past the body to the Son of God as He really is and sees the light of holiness there.
"It beholds a light beyond the body; an idea beyond what can be touched, a purity undimmed by errors, pitiful mistakes, and fearful thoughts of guilt from dreams of sin."
(W.158.7.3) There is no specialness in this love, as it is not selective. Everyone is the same. Everyone has the same light of divinity within and shares the same need to wake up from this dream.
Differences were made by the ego for a purpose. It was all set up so we could project our own guilt onto others. Thus, we see the guilt in our minds in them, although it is important to recognize this guilt does not belong to us. We made a vow to each other,
"a promise to another to be hurt by him, and to attack him in return."
(T.28.VI.4.7) (ACIM OE T.28.VII.57) It is by this agreement that we could claim our innocence and our specialness at the expense of our brother's innocence. It is an innocence achieved at his expense in the belief we can avoid punishment from a wrathful god whom we hope will see us as the innocent victim of attacks not our own. This is just a ruse, and somewhere in our minds, we know this is so, which is why we end up feeling very guilty. The thing is that we have made another promise that we will keep. It is the promise we made to God but have forgotten.
"In his creation did his Father say, 'You are beloved of Me and I of you forever. Be you perfect at Myself, for you can never be apart from me.'"
(T.28.VI.6.5) (ACIM OE T.28.VII.59) What we don’t remember is that we replied,
"I will."
(T.28.VI.6.6) (ACIM OE T.28.VII.59)
When we see bodies and what they seem to do in the world, we see attack, murder, wars, betrayals, competition, thievery, and many forms of betrayal. It is important to recognize that while the form of the attacks differs, in the end, we see the sins we are holding in our own minds, which we are projecting onto others. No, I have not murdered anyone, nor have I killed anyone in war, but the murderous thoughts I hold in my mind are the same. They kill my peace of mind and make me forget who I am. While I prefer to see the wrongdoings in my brothers, the error in my mind is the same, as long as I am condemning any aspect of the Sonship. It is the guilt in my mind that I conveniently project "out there," and now I see it in my brothers, while seeing myself as pure and innocent. This is a false picture of myself and one I hold onto because it keeps me from recognizing the guilt in my own mind, which I have denied. The only way we can see beyond all these behaviors and see with Christ's vision is to bring our projections back into our own minds and see that the enemy "out there" is actually within the mind. Now we are no longer powerless against outside forces but can choose to heal our minds. Only in this way can we clear the way for Christ's vision, and only in this way can we awaken to who we are.
Christ's vision will then overlook all the seeming sins we see in the world, and
"In His forgiveness are they gone."
(W.158.9.2) Further, the forms of the sin does not matter, nor how enormous it appears to be, nor who seems hurt by it because the effects are completely undone. There is no hierarchy in illusions. All illusions can be put in one category, which is---they are simply not true. And, even more amazing, he says
"They are no more. And
all effects they seemed to have are gone with them, undone and never to be done."
(W.158.9.5‑6) Through forgiveness, what appeared to happen is wiped away. The only way we can really understand this is to realize that this world and our experiences here are all illusory. They are all dreamt by the mind that seemed to fall asleep to what it really is. This is the only way true forgiveness makes sense. Otherwise, we would be trying to overlook what is real. Instead, we forgive our brothers for what they have not done. Ultimately, nothing real has happened. It is a pretty amazing that we can look at some of the horrors of the world and are willing to accept that none of it ever happened. It was all just a dream, no different than what we see when we awaken from our nighttime dreams and realize their unreality.
This has to be understood within the context of time and the script. First, in relation to time, he tells us that we seem to be on a journey through time, but the journey is already over. To us, time goes in one direction with a lot of events that seem entirely arbitrary, where the future is unknown, with circumstances changing, events taking place, people coming, going, dying, and being born. It all seems to flow through time and seems to have some kind of continuity. We encounter many unexpected events in our lives, which turn everything upside-down and create chaos. It feels to us as though these events come out of nowhere.
"Yet,"
Jesus says,
"there is a plan behind appearances that does not change.
" (W.158.4.2) Further, while things appear arbitrary to us,
"there is no step along the road that anyone takes but by chance.
" (W.158.3.3)
It has all already happened since time is over. We are just reliving an experience in our memory, remembering it from the end of the journey. The journey is over. It has already happened, which we will know when we wake up. A fuller discussion of this can be found in Chapter 26, in the Section,
"The Little Hindrance,"
where Jesus says,
"Time lasted but an instant in your mind, with no effect upon eternity. And so is all time past, and everything exactly as it was before the way to nothingness [
illusion]
was made."
(T.26.V.3.3-4) (ACIM OE T.26.VI.32) Yet while time is meaningless, we believe in it so
"why should you waste it going nowhere, when it can be used to reach a goal as high as learning can achieve?"
(T.26.V.2.3) (ACIM OE T.26.VI.31) What we can achieve by our learning is vision, or true perception.
He asks us to
"Look lovingly on the present, for it holds the only things that are forever true. All healing lies within it because its continuity is real."
(T.13.VI.6.2-3) (ACIM OE T.12.VI.50) In the present, each moment is free from the past, which gives us the complete freedom to choose what we want in that moment.
"The present is before time was, and will be when time is no more. In it are all things that are eternal, and they are one. Their continuity is timeless and their communication is unbroken, for they are not separated by the past. Only the past can separate, and it is nowhere."
(T.13.VI.6.5-8) (ACIM OE T.12.VI.50) So the present is the same moment as it was ten thousand years ago. We impose our own continuity on time with our stories. And with our belief in time, the mind feels more and more imprisoned.
Furthermore, if
"The script is written"
(W.158.4.3) and the time has been set for when our experience comes to an end, then we are just mentally reviewing what has already gone by. So, we might just as well relax and let our doubts go. If what we are to learn is revealed at the appointed time, as Jesus says, then we need not fret about where we seem to be. Does this mean that everything is already determined? Is it all just fate? Is there nothing we can do? It certainly seems that way, yet we read that we can save thousands of years, as we do our forgiveness work, and we can skip parts of this mental review, which is what the miracle does. So, it seems that it is not all already determined. Ultimately, we will all experience revelation or awakening. Miracles enable us to save time. Perhaps, it is all a matter of how willing we are to participate in the process of our salvation. Our part is to let go of our defenses and see how we deny taking responsibility. The world can be such an awesome and perfect classroom when used for healing purposes. It means everything that seems to happen to us can be seen as a wonderful opportunity to learn to undo our untrue selves so the Christ Self can be revealed.
The important thing is not to linger here by being tempted to delay our awakening. We are already at the end of the journey, just imagining we are making it again. The story is already over, but we won't know that until we are ready to experience it. Another way to see this was explained to me by a friend, who says that he imagines himself sitting with Jesus in a theater and the story they are watching together is some portion of his life unfolding in front of him like a movie. It is a helpful way to recognize that we are the ones dreaming our stories and not one of the characters on the stage. When we identify with the story, as we might identify with a movie we are watching, we forget that the characters are just dream figures, as we are drawn into feelings of anxiety, laughter, sadness, or grief. In the same way, we can get lost in our own movie of our lives and identify with what is happening, as if it were all real. When we forget to be the observer and become the character in the movie, we forget who we are. We then take the movie of our lives very seriously. Healing happens when we remember to step out of the movie and watch it all without judgment. Nothing in the story is right or wrong, good or bad. It is just all unreal. We can now choose to observe what has already happened.
We are learning to see with vision. It is like learning a language, where we do language labs and grammar studies, the purpose of which is to eventually speak and understand the language. It is the same with the Lessons. We do the Lessons and the meditations, not as an end in themselves but as a way of strengthening our ability to forgive and to see with spiritual vision, which is precisely the goal of the Course. It is not a Course to study or to understand intellectually. It is a teaching to apply in our daily lives. It took me many years of study to get sufficiently motivated to really live the teachings to the best of my ability by becoming very willing to do the work on a daily basis, moment by moment, watching my thoughts.
The Manual for Teachers, speaks more about the world of time, saying, "
What happened long ago seems to be happening now. Choices made long since appear to be open; yet to be made. What has been learned and understood and long ago passed by is looked upon as a new thought, a fresh idea, a different approach. Because your will is free you can accept what has already happened at any time you choose, and only then will you realize that it was always there.
" (M.2.3.2-5)
Jesus knows we will have a great deal of struggle trying to understand all this, so he says,
"There is no need to further clarify what no one in the world can understand. When revelation of your oneness comes, it will be known and fully understood. Now we have work to do..."
(W.169.10.1-3)
We need not be concerned with the final experience of revelation, but only with each act of forgiveness, which brings us closer to the time already set. Everything we experience is perfect for our learning. Nothing is by chance. Everything is as it needs to be. Our part is to accept and to allow. There is nothing to strive for. In fact, striving is of the ego. We need not concern ourselves with when the time will come for our awakening. We need not get anxious or feel guilty at our rate of progress. We only need to do what is in front of us each day in applying the Lessons and leave the rest to the Holy Spirit.
For now, let us be comforted by the fact it is not difficult to learn to give as you receive
"if you remember in your brother you but see yourself. If he be lost in sin, so much you be; if you see light in him, your sins have been forgiven by yourself.
Each brother whom you meet today provides another chance to let Christ's vision shine on you, and offer you the peace of God."
(W.158.10.3-5) If anyone seems to be attacking me, it is just another opportunity for me to see my own guilt that I have hidden from myself. All I am seeing are my own thoughts. It is an outward picture of my own inward condition. "
Here is the joining of the world of doubt and shadows made with the intangible.
" (W.158.6.1) We are bringing our misperceptions, based on our wrong-minded thought system, to the light of the Atonement. Thus, we can experience the
"quiet place within the world made holy by forgiveness and by love,"
(W.158.6.2) until our journey ends at the real world and Heaven's gate.
Christ's vision is like a stepping-stone within the experiences of time, illusion, the world, and Heaven. When we have reached the real world, we are done with this journey and
"Experience—unlearned, untaught, unseen—is merely there."
(W.158.6.4) We need to only concern ourselves with getting closer to vision, which is true perception, and when that is achieved, experience (revelation) is just remembered at the appointed time, not learned.
"It matters not when revelation comes, for that is not of time. Yet time has still one gift to give, in which true knowledge is reflected in a way so accurate its image shares its unseen holiness; its likeness shines with its immortal love."
(W.158.11.1-2) In other words, we do the practice of seeing with the eyes of Christ today and let go of any concern about the end of the journey. We recognize that we are all the same, not in form but in our shared need to wake up from this dream and in who we really are. This is the reflection of the truth that we are One. We just need to be willing to do what is in front of us now instead of worrying about when we will achieve Heaven.
"Now you must learn that only infinite patience produces immediate effects."
(T.5.VI.12.1) (ACIM OE T.5.VIII.81)
Love and blessings, Sarah
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Allen Watson's
Workbook Commentaries
Allen joined Robert Perry in forming the Circle of Atonement in 1993 in Sedona, Arizona where Allen led retreats and workshops and authored many books based on “A Course in Miracles.” One of his most popular books is “
A Workbook Companion: Vol I and II
.”
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Course in Miracles Society (@ACIM_Original) | Twitter
Follow us on TWITTER and join the ACIM community. Just use the hashtag #ACIM when you post! Students share Inspirational Quotes, Events, Personal Insights, ACIM News, and more.
Read more
twitter.com
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COURSE IN MIRACLES SOCIETY
(non-profit)
Tax-Deductible Donation
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Presently all CIMS projects are supported by free will gifts of time, talent, and money. If you would like to support any of the activities of the Society in any way, please do not hesitate to get in touch.
Because of the international character of CIMS, the internet is our primary means of communicating and collaborating.
To make a Tax-Deductible Donation in support of the Daily Lessons just click
Here.
Also, by means of your will or other estate plan, you can name "
Course in Miracles Society" as the beneficiary of a portion of your estate, or of particular assets in your estate. In this way, you are honoring your loved ones while also providing critical support to the extension of LOVE.
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SHARE THE BLESSING of ACIM!
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